Chip Zdarsky is being chased by a sinister force in Crossover #7 by writer Chip Zdarksy, artist Phil Hester, inker Ande Parks, colorist Dee Cunniffe, and letterer John J. Hill. A new creative team takes over for a very intriguing single-issue story about what a comic creator does in a world where comics are verboten, one that sets things up for the future.

This issue is fascinating as it follows Chip Zdarksy as he tries to make his way in a world where his job is suddenly the worst job one can have. He’s bouncing between things, using an assumed name, but he knows that something is after him, and he’s right- a comic version of himself that he and Matt Fraction put into Sex Criminals #14. They meet up, but his comic version warns him there’s something else after him, and the two try to escape. The comic Chip is caught, but the other gets away and looks for help from a very interesting source.

Cates and Shaw take a back seat as Zdarksy and Hester take over for what is a very interesting issue. This is a very meta issue. It involves two different versions of Zdarksy speaking to each other at one point- and even makes a joke about how hacky meta-issues can be- one can look at it almost as a therapy session. Zdarksy writes the comic Chip as someone who is basically a protection mechanism for him- the brash one who can “snort too much cocaine and fight with Ryan Stegman on Twitter.” To an extent, many people have this sort of thing, a part of themselves that acts as the larger than life side of them, and Zdarksy uses that brilliantly. There’s also a part in the issue where he laments that writing and drawing is the only thing he can do and reveals a vulnerability in the artist that readers aren’t used to seeing from comic stars because readers are only used to seeing what the creator shows not the very real fears and neuroses that bubble under the surface of every artist. It raises the question of how much is real and how much is false in this issue. How much of this is Chip talking about himself?

Beyond all of that, the comic also does some interesting things with the book’s overarching plot. Zdarsky talks about being afraid of the characters he’s worked on coming after him and other comic creators because of the things creators have done to them, which, like much of this issue, echoes Grant Morrison’s Animal Man #26. Readers know that comic creators are being killed and are in hiding, but it was assumed that they were hunted by regular humans. This issue basically posits that maybe they aren’t and that more comic characters have escaped the Dome than anyone actually thought. It’s not exactly a new plot point- Morrison planted the seed for it almost three decades ago- but it’s a cool one to bring up in this book. The chapter ends with yet another crossover, and it’s a rather surprising- and fun- one that will hopefully be played with in the future.

Hester’s art is top-notch. In fact, this is honestly probably the best his art has been in a long time. It’s less cartoony than his superhero stuff is, possibly because he’s drawing a real person, but it works so very well because of this. This would still be a good issue in his regular style, but the more realistic style really makes the whole thing pop. It’s not exactly photo-realistic- this is still Phil Hester after all-but it has a different flavor that works very well for this issue.

Crossover #7 is yet another stellar installment. Zdarksy and Hester tell a great story, giving Cates and Shaw a break. This is an excellent issue that takes a look at an artist and how they feel about themselves that also does some great work with the book’s story. It’ll be interesting to see if the book does this again, inviting on different creative teams and showing different facets of this world. It’s a nice change of pace and a fun issue that keeps up the comic’s quality.

Grade: A+